All the usual wrestling news players are beginning to report on the rumors and spoilers for how the Mania card appears to be shaping up, and if you’re like me, you just can’t keep yourself from clicking on those spoilers. So let’s try to sort out everything that’s been reported so far, and see if it all makes sense. (Unless otherwise noted, all rumors below originated with the Wrestling Observer or PWInsider.)

Here’s the rumored card so far, which (besides Brock vs. Goldberg) is based on reports, rumors, and best guesses on our part. Be aware that none of this is substantiated, and that there may accidentally be spoilers in here, so read on at your own peril and take everything with a Doritos Locos-level amount of salt.

Never happen, but have Joe represent HHH & Styles represent Shane and the winner gets to call their shot or whatever. Triple H clearly won’t let this happen since he needs to be on display for Mania, but it would tie together a lot of floundering story problems they currently have

I just do not under any circumstances want to see Shane wrestling at WrestleMania ever again. I’ll take a completely out-of-nowhere AJ Styles faceturn so he can represent Smackdown against HHH and RAW as long as it keeps Shane out of the ring.

@Mr. Bliss – you don’t even need a Styles heel turn, as Shane can just claim that he hates his brother-in-law more than he hates AJ, and AJ can work a more crowd-pleasing style because he wants to one-up a guy that has always looked down on guys like him (see: Bryan, Daniel), though they could spin it into a face turn so that we get a Bray/AJ program leading up to Summerslam.

Getting Lesnar some shine back, I suspect. If he pins Goldberg at Wrestlemania for a world title – one he hasn’t held, even – then does the same thing he did for his last WWE title run and shows up occasionally to wreck people, it could do well for him. I’m just not sure he needs it.

Goldberg has proved to be a draw since coming back. The smart business decision is to have your championship on your big draw, instead of a nameless superstar, so that it adds credibility and exposure to the brand when he is promoting your biggest show of the year. Face it, Wrestlemania is for the big names, not for the big talents.

As painful as the 6 hour format is, it wouldn’t be nearly as painful if they didn’t give half an hour plus to matches like Shane v Taker and HHH v Reigns like they did last year. I’d rather see 2 fire 20 minute matches for each respective tag championship than one slog of rest holds and posturing.

It’s quite interesting that they’re giving Braun the monster push and having him face down the part-timers, and they clearly have no Mania plans for him. At least with the Smackdown guys they have options with an IC multi-man or whatever. (There’s some talk, by the way, that the SD women are also getting a fatal four-way)

The thing that I saw most covered in the mainstream press after WM32 was Austin, Foley and Michaels, and not in the “why are they destroying the actual talent?” way the wrestling sites ran but “the legends are back!!!” because they’re the guys who were on top when people did watch wrestling all year round, even if that was a decade and a half ago. Mania is the only time of the year a vast number of people watch WWE. Their only concept of AJ Styles is as the guy Jericho beat.

Just to elaborate on that post, I know in sport promoting guys that age as your big stars is regressive and short-sighted but WWE isn’t seen as an athletic concept, it’s fake fighting for kids and rednecks, so people think their personalities are all that’s important. Hell, the last Cena-Styles promo exchange was based on “I get chosen to guest host the Today show, but nobody outside the WWE Universe has ever heard of you”. And when WWE do try and launch a new breakthrough star they handle his push in such a way he ends up being booed by tens of thousands of people to close the show while the press covering the event kindly look the other way.

How about this change it to Taker vs. Balor, The Deadman vs. The Demon, and have Roman Reigns vs. Samoe Joe and have the story line be that he is standing up for Rollins or something like that cause they are friends now, have Reigns lose and go berserk and turn heel.

I’d be up for that. Genuine Bullet Club reunion, with heel Balor vs. The Undertaker. Balor would be an easy enough opponent for Taker too and would be able to bump his ass off for him. Then run Joe vs. Roman as you say. Sure fire way of getting me excited for a Roman and Undertaker match. Just don’t have them face each other.

I hate how they keep saying this Mania match will settle the score once and for all with Goldberg and Brock. If you count GB eliminating him in a minute at the Rumble, Goldies up 3-0 on Brock. If you don’t, he’s up 2-0 with one of those matches being an absolute trouncing. Best Brock can do is be… Ugh… Less far behind… In their series

Nah. look at it this way, Eli and The Giants beat Brady and the Patriots in 2 Super Bowls but if Brady beats The Giants in one Super Bowl and they never meet again, everyone would say that Brady got the last laugh

In fairness to the previous Wrestlemanias, they all ended with a newer star beating the established name part timer, which is the best way to use said part timers. Beating guys like Batista, Brock Lesnar and Triple H at Wrestlemania is a good book. What they may be doing now, a part timer vs a part timer for a world title, however, is not so great.

That said, if Brock wins, destroys everyone on the way to Summerslam, then is pinned by a younger guy for the Universal title, it might make it mean something for one thing, plus someone would get the rub of actually pinning him while also not being a star from twenty years ago. We’ll see how it goes, but I can see ways it can work.